Man Utd Transfer Signings + Rumours

MooShop

yeah the report says that Arsenal and Liverpool said they aren't going to put a bid in for him. Naturally there are going to be clubs interested in Owen, he is a great player, but there is a difference in clubs being interested and him wanting to go to them clubs. Im undecided about the Owen situation so far but if RVN can get his form back on track and if Saha can stay fit and get a good run going then there is no need for Owen at United. But i dont understand people saying Owen has no form, he appeared 29 times for Real last season and scored 13 (i think) goals. most of them appearances were sub appearances as well. Personally i never really liked Owen but there's no denying he is a great talent and will score goals who ever he plays for. Thats just my opinion anyway.

Jivin Turkey

sprinkles wrote:

Saha's agent told a few home truths about Owens form too, saying that he couldn't not score when playing for a team like real and that his last season in the prem was pretty poor so in his opinion Saha was his equal if not his peer.

personally I agree.

Personally I think that Saha's agent should spend more time getting his client fit before mouthing off at players that have proven they have what it takes at every level of the game, from domestic to European to international.

I mean what has Saha ever achieved in football?

SteM

Jivin Turkey wrote:

Personally I think that Saha's agent should spend more time getting his client fit before mouthing off at players that have proven they have what it takes at every level of the game, from domestic to European to international.

Heh, got a picture in my mind about Saha running around a park beside a bloke in a suit with a briefcase shouting 'FEEL THE BURN' at him trying to get fit now.

Didn't see much of Owen last season but he seemed to have a very good goals/games ration there.

Jivin Turkey

SteM wrote:

Heh, got a picture in my mind about Saha running around a park beside a bloke in a suit with a briefcase shouting 'FEEL THE BURN' at him trying to get fit now.

Didnt seem to work to bad for Duffer in that Lucozade ad

SteM wrote:

Didn't see much of Owen last season but he seemed to have a very good goals/games ration there.

Exactly, and certainly better than the client of the aformentioned agent. I understand that he is just trying to protect the interests of his client, but hes talking absolute nonsense.

Necronomicon

United beat Belgian side Royal Antwerp 6-1 tonight. Hat-trick from Van Nistelrooy, and goals from Paul Scholes, Darren Fletcher and Christiano Ronaldo. Only bad thing is that Rooney and Ron appeared to get injuries, but Fergie has played down the seriousness of them, hopefully it's nothing serious. Antwerp scored from the penalty spot after Rio pulled someone down. (Well, allegedly).

TheMonster

Necromomicon wrote:

United beat Belgian side Royal Antwerp 6-1 tonight. Hat-trick from Van Nistelrooy, and goals from Paul Scholes, Darren Fletcher and Christiano Ronaldo. Only bad thing is that Rooney and Ron appeared to get injuries, but Fergie has played down the seriousness of them, hopefully it's nothing serious. Antwerp scored from the penalty spot after Rio pulled someone down. (Well, allegedly).

Surely - that can't be right - Ruud is playing badly and will be sold to be replaced by Owen.

ciaran76

Anyone hear that Phil Neville is off to Everton today ? Any truth in the rumours ?

SteM

Necromomicon wrote:

United beat Belgian side Royal Antwerp 6-1 tonight. Hat-trick from Van Nistelrooy, and goals from Paul Scholes, Darren Fletcher and Christiano Ronaldo. Only bad thing is that Rooney and Ron appeared to get injuries, but Fergie has played down the seriousness of them, hopefully it's nothing serious. Antwerp scored from the penalty spot after Rio pulled someone down. (Well, allegedly).

And RVN scored from outside the box! Well from a deflected free kick but I'm counting it 3 for Ruud but 2 were from set pieces….

No way was it a penalty, Rio got the ball and it should have been a free out if anything but I think the ref was looking to make things less embarrassing for Antwerp. It was an anniversary match for them iirc but they were a very poor side.

PHB

Phil Neville is off to Everton subject to a medical.
Good move for United.
Got 3 million + preformance bonuses
Frees up space for young kids to push through
Frees up 50 k a week in wages, allowing another player to be bought

sprinkles

he just signed according to sky. 3mil+

PHB

Scholes is playing just ****ign amazing. I'm really looking forward to him next season. Maybe the prospect of a Ballack style player being bought has reverted him to the Scholes of old.

Van Nist scores another pre season hatrick, meaning he scored in total 8 goals in 250 minutes of football, or 2 and 3/4's of a match.
Terrible ****ing player

Ronaldo also looks better than last year. The guy has become as strong as rooney, its ****ing fantastic.

wheres me jumpa

did i hear jones is gone out on loan? i know some of you guys are a huge fan so im just wondering what ye think of this move?

PHB

Jones is going out on loan to Preston for a year.
Thats great news tbh.
Preston showed in the second half of last season they were challenging for the championship playoffs, and I think they will do the same again.
It also means they will be playing attractive style football, giving him a chance to show his talent.
Beckham made the same move, and the season after he came back and broke into the first team, I think Jones will do the same.
He is the future of the Man Utd midfield

andyman

PHB wrote:

Jones is going out on loan to Preston for a year.
Thats great news tbh.
Preston showed in the second half of last season they were challenging for the championship playoffs, and I think they will do the same again.
It also means they will be playing attractive style football, giving him a chance to show his talent.
Beckham made the same move, and the season after he came back and broke into the first team, I think Jones will do the same.
He is the future of the Man Utd midfield

Exactly!! This could be Becks all over again. Hopefully he'll score from the Half way line at some point in his career.

I'm not happy about Neville moving tbh. I knew he was a fringe player, but I always liked him and I was hoping he would challenge Gary next year.

homerjay2005

they seem to be cutting down the wages, alot of players have been off-laoded over july(caroll,ricardo,nardiello etc) im sure phil was on a decent wage, if kleberson goes and saha as some people feel, then this will make more funds available for new players to come in....phil is pushing for 30, £3 million aint bad business for him considering they paid £4million for park. phil might have asked for the transfer, baring in mind the world cup coming up, this could be his last chance to get on the squad

_blank_

homerjay2005 wrote:

they paid £4 for park

Four quid?

Jaysis, what a bargain

andyman

Could've bought him for Kilkenny City.

homerjay2005

seansouth wrote:

Four quid?

Jaysis, what a bargain

oh you should be a comedian,

i reckon you could get a job for the fai!!!!

PHB

The thing is that while United have the transfer budget availible to buy a player, they have an incredibly strict wage structure that they will not break for anyone, as shown by the Rio saga, who btw is very close to signing apparently after Utd told him he will see out his two years on his contract no matter what.

So now that Pip is gone, we have an extra 50 k a week to spend, which will allow to us buy anyone we want, since we also lost 40k from Caroll.

andyman

Who can cover for Gary at RB then. As I said before Brown is injury prone and Spector is at Charlton unless United have a recall clause.

PHB

Brown is not injury prone.
He had one bad injury which he has recovered from.

Defensive cover for United:
O'Shea
Brown
Fortune
Pique

andyman

Aren't O'Shea and Fortune LB cover?!

PHB

O'Shea is primarily a CB, he is right footed.
He however was used as a LB when we had none.
Fortune is a LB cover.
O'Shea can play any position in the back 4
Brown is a RB and CB cover
Pique is an out and out CB

Our defense is fine, since our defense rarely if ever gets injured, and we have sufficient cover in O'Shea and Brown mostly

SteM

PHB wrote:

So now that Pip is gone, we have an extra 50 k a week to spend, which will allow to us buy anyone we want, since we also lost 40k from Caroll.

Van Der Saar and Park must be playing for free every week then?

PHB

No, they were funded by the release of Carroll, and the trimming of a multitude of ex-youth players who were on scary wages, such as Micheal Stewart who was on 17 grand a week.

MooShop

PHB: is there somewhere you can get the breakdown of the players wages etc. Would be interesting to see what players are making what and you seem to know your ****

PHB

I actually don't know, I just remember stuff when its signed tbh and from reading from other people. Have a search on yahoo, a lot of the contracts are unknown, but United's were much more public since of the PLC nature, not anymore though

PHB

btw Ruud finally scored from outside the box, I think that his first outside the box since he started playing for United, can't remember another

Jivin Turkey

I seriously doubt that those wages figures are accurate.

£40K for Carroll? He only ever signed one contract with United, when he signed. And he was signed as a second choice keeper. £40K? In your dreams.

And even with P.Neville signing a new contract recently, Id doubt that he is on as high as £50K, seeing as at the time he signed he was firmly down the pecking order.

United do have a fairly tight control on what they pay and to whom, they are not prepared to pay over the odds. Both Keane and now Ferdinand have had trouble getting the contracts they deserved (or want in Ferdinands case). They rate these players higher than a £40K sub GK, a £50K utility man, or a laughable £17K for a youth player that was so good, spent three years of his six year career at OT on loan.

SteM

MooShop wrote:

PHB: is there somewhere you can get the breakdown of the players wages etc. Would be interesting to see what players are making what and you seem to know your ****

try www.illhaveaguess.com

Jivin Turkey

SteM wrote:

try www.illhaveaguess.com

That link is down

PHB

Yeh, you know who else is on stupid wages, Richardson, on 22k a week.
Stewart was viewed by Fergie as Keane's replacement, which automatically gives him huge wages.
Same with Miller.
I never understood why Caroll had such high wages either, but apparently he did.

Jivin Turkey

PHB wrote:

Yeh, you know who else is on stupid wages, Richardson, on 22k a week.
Stewart was viewed by Fergie as Keane's replacement, which automatically gives him huge wages.
Same with Miller.
I never understood why Caroll had such high wages either, but apparently he did.

I think someone is telling you porkies.

With the exception of Miller who was signed on a bosman and hence will have inflated wages, and possibly Phil Neville, all of those are way off the mark.

Even Richardson, unless he has signed a new contract in the last couple of months which he hasn't.

Man Utd didnt get to be the richest club in the world by paying £17K a week to players that sit on the bench, for their reserves.

andyman

If you're saying Stewert was a bench warmer for the reserves last year... He wasn't!!

He was out on loan at Hearts IIRC.

Jivin Turkey

andyman wrote:

If you're saying Stewert was a bench warmer for the reserves last year... He wasn't!!

He was out on loan at Hearts IIRC.

My point was he was never near the United first team.

He had trouble breaking into the Hearts first team last year for Gods sake.

PHB

Perhaps, I'm just rejurgitating what I've seen elsewhere.
But Richardson is 22, and is highly rated as a hot prospect for the future. If he signed a pro deal at age 18, he probably got an extension at age 21 and inturn is on fairly decent wages.

Man Utd have one of the highest wage bills in the world, 2nd in England to only Chelsea.

Jivin Turkey

PHB wrote:

Perhaps, I'm just rejurgitating what I've seen elsewhere.

You should have checked www.illhaveaguess.com so.

PHB wrote:

But Richardson is 22, and is highly rated as a hot prospect for the future. If he signed a pro deal at age 18, he probably got an extension at age 21 and inturn is on fairly decent wages.

He had hardly played a game by the time he was 22. They wouldnt have come out and lashed £22K on the table for him. Thats almost as much as Ronaldo would have been on when he joined I would have imagined.

PHB wrote:

Man Utd have one of the highest wage bills in the world, 2nd in England to only Chelsea.

Man Utd have one of the biggest squads of quality players in the world, second only in England to Chelsea.

Most of Uniteds first team are also all well into their careers, 26-34, these players have achieved enough to demand big wages.

Im not surprised in the slightest.

But talk of youngsters getting as high as 17-22K is plain ridiculous. Particularly when they had trouble giving Keane his contract a couple of years ago when he was looking for about £80K.

Necronomicon

PHB wrote:

btw Ruud finally scored from outside the box, I think that his first outside the box since he started playing for United, can't remember another

Yep, first thing I noticed, was delighted. Beckham eat your heart out!

PHB

Actually Ronaldo was on 15k a week when he first joined.
United pay their youngstes a lot, since they want to keep em happy etc.

The figures i've seen from elsewhere I trust, since I have no reason not to trust them, nor does anyone else.

Necronomicon

Ronaldo was still in that region until he signed the new contract last month or the month before I think. Don't know if it was 15k, but it was something low enough for his position in the team.

johnor

Id imagine there would be nothing better than being a "youngster" at united, your almost garunteed to be playing first team football in the top 2 divisons in england at the end of your united stint and should u break intot the first team well your at one of the biggest clubs in the world.....wouldnt think they demand a large wage if anything from a young age they are being tought their trade in the best possible way and hence should be on less then youngsters at worse clubs? i dunno obviously i doubt have the figures in front of me, can always use football manager as a guide im sure they must be basing their figures on some sort of facts or reasonable estimations....like Carroll couldnt be on 40k a week! he joined from wigan and it wasnt like there was 3/4 teams in for him and united won a race or anything....

SteM

PHB wrote:

The figures i've seen from elsewhere I trust, since I have no reason not to trust them, nor does anyone else.

It's the internet ffs, why would anyone believe these figures? Just because someone on some site quotes that Richardson is on 22k a week - what do they know? BTW, this would seem like a crazy figure to me considering he's been a mainstay in the reserves for the last few seasons. Just goes to show how desperate England are for a left midfielder that he got a run out for them in the summer.

It's all guessing and most figures quoted in papers/websites are usually total guesses.

Jivin Turkey

PHB wrote:

Actually Ronaldo was on 15k a week when he first joined.
United pay their youngstes a lot, since they want to keep em happy etc.

The figures i've seen from elsewhere I trust, since I have no reason not to trust them, nor does anyone else.

The proof is here.

Why would United possibly pay Michael Stewart, a reserve team player at best, more money than an automatic first teamer, signed for that purpose, who cost £13M?

MooShop

Mc Shane joins Brighton on loan

http://www.manutd.com/news/fullstory.sps?iNewsid=214402&itype=466&icategoryid=120

SteM

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,1563,1543033,00.html?gusrc=rss

Daniel Taylor, Matt Scott and Dominic Fifield
Friday August 5, 2005
The Guardian

Sir Alex Ferguson has been placed under far stricter financial restrictions than had been anticipated under the Glazer regime. The official line from the new owners was that significant funds were available but, privately, Ferguson has been told the priority is to offload players, a policy that gathered momentum with the £3.5m transfer of Phil Neville to Everton yesterday.
Despite Joel Glazer's promise that his family were happy to fund "another Wayne Rooney", a different impression was given to Michael Owen's representatives during their talks with the club's chief executive David Gill this week. Rather than adding an £80,000-a-week player to the payroll, it emerged that United are seeking to reduce their wage bill.

To that effect, it has been circulated that Kleberson is available at £2m, while Neville's departure will save the club £10m in wages.
It emerged yesterday that one of United's favoured agents recently contacted Willy Sagnol's representatives to discuss the possibility of his moving from Bayern Munich, but not until the start of the 2006-07 season when the defender will be a free agent.

Similarly, they have been putting in place a deal for Bayern's captain Michael Ballack, who also has only a year of his contract to run. United would rather wait to sign him with the reason for doing so being described within Old Trafford as "saving £8m".

PHB

Jivin, Micheal Stewart was incredibly highly rated by everyone at United. There was a lot of hype about him at the time, and he had a reserve season comparable to David Jones, and thus Man Utd wanted to secure him for the future afaik.

It's the internet ffs, why would anyone believe these figures?

Why would Man Utd fans make up these figures? The other message boards I read aren't filled with people who get their jollies by making up figures

---

Man Utd have always had this sorta financial responsibility, theres no real change.
Neville was offloaded cause of his wages mostly, and I'd imagine Kleberson will aswell. Its how you can fund a move for new players. Wages cost a hell of a lot more than the transfer fee to buy a player normally, and Man Utd have a strict wage budget which they rarely if ever break.

Necronomicon

Looks like poor Saha is set to miss the start of the season with a knee operation, hopefully it'll heal for good this time.

SteM

PHB wrote:

Why would Man Utd fans make up these figures? The other message boards I read aren't filled with people who get their jollies by making up figures

Why would they make them up? Okay, you tell me how they would KNOW them? Unless the message boards you read are posted on by United players or their accountants then people are guessing, plain and simple. It's like someone posts something on a different forum, you read it and post it here but you don't know if it's true or not!? How do you know the person posting it from where you've gotten it didn't just read it somewhere else?

No ones saying anyone would 'get their jollies' but the fact is no one except the player and club knows for sure and unless it comes from the players mouth rather than some no nothing on a forum somewhere it's speculation.

PHB

PLC, publically listed company, the dealings and tranactions of the club had to be reported.
This is no longer the case, but it was before so, and anyone who had a decent share could see the fiscal reports and accounts.

MooShop

Necromomicon wrote:

Looks like poor Saha is set to miss the start of the season with a knee operation, hopefully it'll heal for good this time.

is there a source for this??